I’m halfway through The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. The Classics Circuit is going to enter the third week of Wilkie Collins tour. I’ve been enjoying the first and second week of the tour. Go check them out if you haven’t! My stop of the tour would be on the 9th of December. I have spared pretty much all November for this tome of a book, so I’m strolling along just nicely without any unnecessary added pressure.

The next tour in January/February would be Edith Wharton. I love the compilation of author information and their works by Rebecca and friends. They’re so thorough and informative! I voted for John Steinbeck at the poll (there were 4 authors, including Mark Twain and Willa Cather) and Wharton won. I’m interested to read The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck and The Age of Innocence by Wharton, but I think I’ll pass this time around just so I have more room to read for my other challenges and projects.

I haven’t read Children books since… forever, but I read TWO this week! I prepared them for Dewey’s read-a-thon but didn’t get around to read them then. Well I should’ve because they only took about 5-10 minutes each (mostly looking at pictures too).

They are Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak and The Great Escape from City Zoo by Tohby Riddle.

Where the Wild Things Are was made into a movie and though it’s not out here in Australia yet, I’d like to be prepared since it looks great! Some people in my company worked on some of its special effects too, so the more reason for me to watch it. The book is super simple. Boy goes to some strange land with strange creatures (love the fuzzy creatures, they’re so cute!) then goes back home. That would give the movie so much freedom to write their own script!

The Great Escape from City Zoo is about 4 animals who escaped from the zoo. Sounds familiar? (I haven’t watched Madagascar but some birds said that Tohby talked to people from Hollywood about his book, the deal didn’t go, but Madagascar the movie soon came after that.) Looks like the four animals there are giraffe, zebra, lion, and hippo. In The Great Escape the animals are elephant, flamingo, turtle, and anteater. I met Tohby Riddle at Sydney Writers’ Festival earlier this year and have wanted to read one of his books since then. I love his illustration. In this book the illustration is all in sepia shade watercolour, which looks quite subtle for normally vibrant colored children books.

A sudden turn from children books, I watched Fight Club this week. I never read Chuck Palahniuk‘s books before and I don’t know if I want to after watching Fight Club. Do you have any to recommend?

For some weird reason, I mixed Palahniuk and Orhan Pamuk on Fight Club so I quietly wondered during the movie: why does a Turkish novelist write about a depressed white collar American who started underground fighting club? To my enlightenment, Palahniuk is indeed an American, and he’s no way related to Pamuk who is indeed a Turkish.

While we’re on the topic of Orhan Pamuk, would you highly recommend any of his books? He intimidates me a bit, but that’s probably because I thought he wrote Fight Club, or of the fact that he’s a Turkish professor and from what I read his books are quite difficult to read.

Fight Club (1999)

Going back to the movie. To summarize, it’s dark psychological thriller. I love the beginning: Edward Norton as a desperate everyday American who suffers insomnia and finds solace in visiting various support groups. (I have loved Edward Norton since the Illusionist and the Painted Veil. Hubby knew him from the Incredible Hulk. *roll eyes*) But then he meets Brad Pitt. While I love some Brad Pitt’s movies, I always see him acting his character, not becoming his character. So I always see Brad Pitt, not whichever character he’s supposed to be. If that makes any sense.

There’s definitely some graphic violence in the movie, sort of expected with a title like that. I was dissatisfied and confused with the ending so that didn’t make it a very good movie for me. But it’s not bad overall.

Rating: 7/10

My first Musing Mondays! Yea I know it’s not Monday. So I’m making this a Sunday Salon post too. (Then I forgot to post it on Sunday, so it’s back to Monday now. Oh well, who’s taking note?)

This past week, Borders re-released it’s 100 Favourite Books of All Times. Do you vote in these kinds of polls when they arise? Do you look through the list, or seek out books featured?

The list is from Borders Australia and I somehow missed the poll. I love book lists I do! I can’t resist to go through each one and mark it, or whatever. It drives me mad though that My Sister’s Keeper is always on popular books list like this one (always near the top too). I read it and hated it. The one book from top 10 that I never heard of is Magician by Raymond E. Feist. Interesting.

Recently Angus & Robertson Australia has also just came out with their own 100 Top Stories. So that’s another list for you. I have the physical list and have marked the ones I read. It’s therapeutic.

Anyway, going back to Borders list, I’ve marked the ones I’ve read in bold, the ones I have on my physical self at home in orange, the ones I really want to read right now underlined, and the ones I’m never going to read in strike (that makes it a bit easier to weed through the list).

I’ve read 17 out of 100.

1. Jane Austen – Pride & Prejudice
2. Harper Lee – To Kill A Mockingbird
3. JRR Tolkien – Lord Of The Rings
4. Jodi Picoult – My Sister’s Keeper
5. Stephanie Meyer – Twilight Saga
6. JK Rowling – Harry Potter & The Philosopher’s Stone
7. Audrey Niffenegger – The Time Traveler’s Wife
8. Markus Zusak – The Book Thief
9. George Orwell – 1984
10. Raymond E. Feist – Magician
11. Khaled Hosseini – A Thousand Splendid Suns
12. Paullina Simons – Bronze Horsemen
13. Gregory David Roberts – Shantaram
14. Margaret Mitchell – Gone With The Wind
15. Bryce Courtenay – Power of One
16. Dan Brown – The Da Vinci Code
17. Dan Brown – Angels & Demons
18. Paulo Coelho – The Alchemist
19. Charlotte Bronte – Jane Eyre
20. Tim Winton – Cloud Street
21. Khaled Hosseini – The Kite Runner
22. Emily Bronte – Wuthering Heights
23. Arthur Golden – Memoirs of Geisha
24. LM Montgomery – Anne Of Green Gables
25. Joseph Heller – Catch-22
26. Elizabeth Gilbert – Eat Pray Love
27. Niv Mass Market Bible With Bible Guide – International Bible Society Staff and International Bible Society
28. JRR Tolkien – The Hobbit
29. Yann Martel – Life of Pi
30. AB Facey – Fortunate Life
31. Douglas Adams – The Hitch-hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy
32. Lewis Carroll – Alice In Wonderland & Through The Looking Glass
33. Diana Gabaldon – Cross Stich
34. Rohinton Mistry – A Fine Balance
35. David Pelzar – A Child Called It
36. Li Cunxin – Mao’s Last Dancer
37. John Marsden – Tomorrow, When The War Began
38. Frank McCourt – Angela’s Ashes
39. Frank Herbert – Dune
40. JD Salinger – A Catcher In The Rye
41. F. Scott Fitzgerald – The Great Gatsby
42. Gabriel Garcia Marquez – One Hundred Years Of Solitude
43. Bryce Courtenay – April Fool’s Day
44. Ken Follet – Pillars Of The Earth
45. Patrick Suskind – Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer
46. Matthew Reilly – Ice Station
47. Carlos Ruiz Zafon – The Shadow Of The Wind
48. Stephen Hawking – A Brief History Of Time
49. Christopher Paolini – Eragon
50. Louisa May Alcott – Little Women
51. Mitch Albom – Tuesdays With Morrie
52. Jane Austen – Persuasion
53. Alice Sebold – The Lovely Bones
54. Ian McEwan – Atonement
55. Leo Tolstory – Anna Karenina
56. George Orwell – Animal Farm
57. Anthony Burgess – A Clockwork Orange
58. Antoine de Saint Exupéry – The Little Prince
59. Roald Dahl – Charlie & The Chocolate Factory
60. CS Lewis – The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe
61. Gabriel Garcia Marquez – Love In The Time Of Cholera
62. Bill Bryson – A Short History Of Nearly Everything
63. Fyodor Dostoevsky – Crime And Punishment
64. Anthony Bourke – Lion Called Christian
65. Arundhati Roy – The God Of Small Things
66. Paullina Simons – Tully
67. John Grisham – A Time To Kill
68. John Grogan – Marley & Me
69. Vikram Seth – A Suitable Boy
70. Alexandre Dumas – Count Of Monte Cristo
71. Neil Gaiman – American Gods
72. Cormac McCarthy – The Road
73. Aldous Huxley – Brave New World
74. Brendan Shanahan – In Turkey I Am Beautiful: Between Chaos And Madness In A Strange Land
75. Tim Winton – Breath
76. Bryce Courtenay – Jessica
77. Graeme Base – Animalia
78. Donna Tartt – The Secret History
79. Mario Puzo – The Godfather
80. Anne Rice – Interview With The Vampire
81. Steig Larrson – The Girl With A Dragon Tattoo
82. Stephen King – Stand
83. Helen Fielding – Bridget Jones’ Diary
84. Eckhart Tolle – New Earth
85. Matthew Reilly – Seven Ancient Wonders
86. Jung Chang – Wild Swans
87. Nicholas Sparks – The Notebook
88. Bret Easton Ellis – American Psycho
89. David Eddings – Belgariad Vol. 1: Pawn Of Prophecy; Queen Of Sorcery; Magician’s Gambit
90. Louis De Bernieres – Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
91. Melina Marchetta – Looking For Alibrandi
92. Celia Ahern – PS I Love You
93. John Irving – A Prayer For Owen Meany
94. Colleen McCullough – The Thorn Birds
95. John Kennedy Toole – A Confederacy Of Dunces
96. Terry Pratchett – Good Omens
97. Hunter S. Thompson – Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas
98. Joanne Harris – Chocolat
99. William Goldman – Princess Bride
100. Charles Dickens – Great Expectations

I’m going to watch WICKED the Broadway Musical this Wednesday so I’m reading Wicked the book by Gregory Maguire feverishly so I can finish it before Wednesday — which is a more difficult task than I thought, because the book is LONG. I’ve been reading it for about 2 weeks now!

Surely I will write my thoughts on the book and the musical on one post, so stay tune!

Meanwhile, here are some foreign movies and movies based on books that I watched recently:

Julie & Julia (2009)
Official site

What can I say? It’s a film about blogging and cooking! It’s as good as what everybody says! The modern Julie’s story is so close to my heart that I often had tears in my eyes throughout the movie (I also have loved Amy Adams since Enchanted). Julia Child felt a bit over the top, but maybe that’s what she really was like? I’d never heard about her until the movie came out.

Interesting fact: Julie & Julia is the first movie ever made based on real blog.

Rating: 9/10

Note: You may think that I’m a bit late in watching the film, but it just opened this week in Australia!

Coraline (2009)
Official site (Excellent website!)

Based on book with the same title by Neil Gaiman, it is a delightful movie, even though things were a bit too predictable. I loved the colors in this movie — they struck me as being really vibrant. I was quite amazed by the smoothness of stop-motion technique that they used to make this movie. It must’ve been tons of work! Check out the website for more details on the making. The information is sort of scattered all over the place, but they might’ve done it on purpose to make you do some treasure hunting to find hidden gems. I just saw a clip about the knitter of all the tiny clothes that the characters wore! She used needles to knit them. Wow.

Rating: 7/10

Note: Again, you may think that I’m a bit late in watching the film, but it just opened last month in Australia!

Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Shawshank Redemption is based on the novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption (1982) by Stephen King. I watched in on DVD and surprisingly loved it since it’s not the kind of premise that I’d normally go for. The story is in prison, but it’s mainly drama and not action. Apparently the film is one of the most popular dvd rent of all time, because it wasn’t that popular when it was out and people are late in catching up. Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne was very impressive (why hadn’t I heard of him before?). Morgan Freeman kept his cool like always. Worth watching.

Rating: 9/10

My Neighbors the Yamadas
1999 (Japan), 2005 (overseas)

My Neighbors the Yamadas is again, a surprising gem. It’s somehow a less popular movie by Studio Ghibli (the maker of Spirited Away, How’s Moving Castle, etc), directed by Isao Takahata (Miyazaki’s long partner) and I don’t know how I ever missed it before, but it’s so funny and heartwarming –  loved it to pieces! The story revolves around Yamada family, who’s like your ‘neighbor next door’. The minutiae of their (crazy yet normal) everyday life is so endearing and humorous, you can’t help but relate, even though they’re Japanese. It just shows that some things happen everywhere around the world, no matter where you are and which culture you’re from. And I love the simplistic animation style!

Rating: 9/10

1) Japanese Literature Read-along, hosted by Tanabata. The first book is I Am Cat by Natsume Soseki, which I’ve been meaning to read for the longest time. So this is a great push for me!

Schedule: Volume 1 – Nov 15, Volume 2 – Dec 15, Volume 3 – Jan 15

2) Japanese Literature Book Group (bi-monthly), also hosted by Tanabata. It starts with Old Capital by Yasunari Kawabata, but since I read Snow Country by Kawabata earlier this year and didn’t love it, I decided to pass. The second book is The Professor and the Housekeeper by Yoko Ogawa though and it’s one I’ve been wanting to read and the discussion is not due until next year, so I’m in!

Schedule: 25 Jan 2010

3) Dewey’s 24 hour read-a-thon is coming again! The read-a-thon always starts near midnight for me so I usually sleep for the first several hours and still wake up for the last hours — more quiet hours because everybody else at the other part of the world starts sleeping. Since I’m such a slow reader, the most number of book that I finished during a read-a-thon was one (while others just churn out books after books like book reading factory. Seriously!). Well, not this time! I went to library yesterday and got a few children books. So that’s my secret weapon.

Schedule: 24 October 2009

4) Wilkie Collins tour hosted by The Classics Circuit (that’s Rebecca and friends). The concept of the Classics Circuit is something similar with book tour, except that its purpose is to promote dead authors instead of newly published books. I just acquired The Woman in White last week (before I knew Wilkie Collins would be the first author tour) so it’s perfect timing!

Schedule: ~ 2 Nov – 4 Dec 2009

5) Dracula read-along, hosted by Fizzy Thoughts. Okay I admit it, I love the banner above so much I just need to join! Plus, Dracula is one that I NEED to read.

Schedule: October 2009

After I signed up for the last two, I went to flip through the two books and immediately sank into panic mode. WHAT WAS I THINKING? The first and the last time I read something from 1800s was Wuthering Heights and it was NOT a quick read (enjoyed it though). There is just NO WAY I could finish one in October, let alone TWO! Was thinking to just back out from both and pretend it never happened.

But then I re-checked the schedule of Wilkie Collins tour and it’s actually in November, not October. So if I get a day in early December… I may just be able to make it. *cross fingers*

One event that I wish I could’ve joined is New Zealand Challenge as October is New Zealand book month. WHY October? Of all months, all reading things must pick October for the party. I’ve never read anything by a Kiwi before and that’s a shame because we’re neighbours. Well, if I were to join the challenge, I would’ve picked Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones. Just saying.

Another event that I may be joining is Hello Japan!, hosted by Tanabata (who else?). Hello Japan! is a monthly mini-challenge about anything Japan. October task is to read or watch something spooky, scary, and Japanese, of course. I just read Strangers by Taichi Yamada, but finished it about a day before the even started, so it probably doesn’t count.. Or I can gush over Battle Royale and Death Note as they’re the most awesomest things ever created by the Japanese.

I’m kinda exhausted just by listing all these events going on in blogosphere. Must breath.

Let me close this post by pointing you to these two lovely bloggers who have passed me the Let’s Be Friends award:

Suko from Suko’s Notebook and Gnoe from Graasland

Thank you ladies! I hope you know how much I appreciate you coming here as my bloggy friends. <3

Are you joining any of the events above?

RIP Short Story Sundays

(hosted by Carl)

I thought I’d mention a couple of stories that I read this week that coincides with RIP spirit. I’ve just finished Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote and one of the short story that comes with the book is House of Flowers, which I thought had a bit odd balance of 3/4 love story and 1/4 creepy story. Apparently it’s made into musical in 1954!

On Friday, I finished the Tiffany’s book on the way to work and I didn’t have anything to read on the way back (which is a big deal, because the commute normally takes about 1 hour one way!) I was in panic mode for a bit before getting the idea to print out several pages of A Christmas Carol by Dickens at the office. Then I realized that I could actually read it on my iPhone too (I have several free books there for emergency).

By the by, has anyone tried to read books on their iPhone? The screen size is not bad I guess and you can adjust the font size and color, but I still prefer paper compared to screen, even though it’s an extra thing I have to carry in my bag.

Review Thing

My review of Purple Hibiscus is printed on goodreading magazine August 2009 edition!

Made me happy :)

Appreciation Thing

Mark David @ absorbed in words has graciously passed me the Zombie Chicken award. You should visit his wonderful blog too! Thank you Mark!

“The blogger who receives this award believes in the Tao of the zombie chicken– excellence, grace, and persistence in all situations, even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. These amazing bloggers regularly produce content so remarkable that their readers would brave a raving pack of zombie chickens just to be able to read their inspiring words. As a recipient of this world-renowned award, you now have the task of passing it on to at least 5 other worthy bloggers. Do not risk the wrath of the zombie chickens by choosing unwisely or not choosing at all.”

Risking the wrath of the zombie chickens, I may choose to pass it on later, since looks like a lot of people have already got it!

Has it been a good week for you? Hope it has! And happy Sunday!

They are both saga novels, span across three generations. They both have political and cultural histories wedged in between the main story. They are both multicultural and multinational in characters and geographic locations.

The impact they made on me, however, couldn’t be more different.

I do like one more than the other. One is intimate while the other one distant. I care about the characters in one and I never had interest in the characters of the other one (in fact I’ve abandoned it for a while now since I didn’t really care much about the ill-fate of the hero — whether any of them die or live). I will finish it just because I probably have less than a quarter away, though I don’t really want to.

And now I feel bad because I got that book I don’t like as an advanced copy and the publicist asked me to share my review when I get the chance to write it. There wasn’t pressure or anything. But not only have I taken time way pass the publication date to read it, I also didn’t like it and have to force myself to finish it. It just seems like a bad deal to me now to feel bad just because of a free book. I probably shouldn’t accept request another advanced copy to save myself from the same predicament.

Yes I know you would tell me not to feel bad and just be honest in “professional” way. But I still feel bad, because I feel pressurized to be polite and to at least finish the book. Do you know what I mean?

On the other hand, I’m a bit behind for my challenges. It’s already passed the half year mark and I’m not halfway for a few of them! In particular, I would like to read more for the Lost in Translation challenge. Can you recommend a translated book I cannot miss? (preferably non-Japanese since I’ve read many Japanese translated books)

And back to generational saga novels, can you recommend another good one? I know One Hundred Years of Solitude is one I should try to read. But what else?

I’ve been working at my new workplace for a full 4 weeks now and just started to feel settled and less nervous (I hope). I also just got my first salary and went to cut my hair yesterday after what felt like a hundred months. A new me, yay! Hubby was being so sweet yesterday, accompanying me around to buy random things and waiting for my haircut. We also went to watch Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince the movie in the afternoon.

Some thoughts about the movie: Again, Harry Potter movies never really made me go ‘Wow’. It’s good eye-candy and it’s fun for people that have read the book to see how the producers visualize the story. This movie is actually the first HP movie that I watched after reading the book. I read all HP books in between Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix the movie and the Half-Blood Prince. So I was watching the first 5 movies not really understanding the plot. This time I had the plot clear in mind.

I was always dissappointed of how they cut a lot of things from the books, but hey, it’s tough cut. The movie’s already 2.5 hours long. I told hubby about the details that were missing from the movie. One that I really missed was Dumbledore’s funeral. It was just really sad not having the memorial service. They ended it far too quick at the end.

ps: Is it just me, or Harry looks quite short compared to the others in the movie?

Book-wise, I’m currently reading Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. I’m a third way through. I’m going at a pretty slow pace (about 3 weeks now) but it’s been an interesting journey so far. I’ve decided that it’s okay for me to read slow. It doesn’t always have to be a race to finish books and tick them off my lists.

I also got sick last week — cough, flu and had to have a day off work even because I felt so horrible. And during that entire week I didn’t feel like doing anything — not reading or writing, hence the lack of posts (on top of the daily busyness of course).

I’m still reading everyone’s blogs and enjoying the book talks and recommendations, but I probably have been a bad commenter in the past few weeks. I’m trying hard I am! Hope you have a good reading week ahead (or just good week in general :)!

My current working hour is 10 hours a day and it takes me 1.5 hour each way to travel to work. So that’s 13 hours outside home. If I sleep around 7-8 hours a day and spend around an hour to get ready for work and around an hour to wind down after work… well… you do the math. That’s about an hour left to do my own stuff.

I can still read during my travel to and from work, so it’s not so bad in that regard. But I literally have very little (or no) blogging time now. I’m gonna try to still post something midweek. The bad thing is it just seems that I have to choose between blog-writing or blog-reading. I have to cut a lot of my blog-reading and visiting time if I want to post something at all. *sigh*

I’d like to apologize in advance if I can no longer catch up with the blogging community. I do hope to visit some blogs in the weekend, or more if I can steal some minutes midweek. I will really miss you all! (Gosh I sound like I’m going away for good.)

Going back to books, I finally compiled my challenge pages for Booker, Orange, and Pulitzer (they’re on the side bar under Perpetual Challenges). I would like to read one book each year from the list of winner OR shortlist OR longlist (because, let’s admit it, the winner isn’t always the best of the lot). Now that I have the lists here I can keep track of them better and hopefully have more nagging feeling to read more from these prize lists.

Have a nice and productive week everyone!

I invited myself over to the shooting of First Tuesday Book Club in Sydney last Friday. The idea to be an audience in a TV show is quite exciting since it’s something I had never experienced before.

First thing I noticed when I arrived at the waiting room was that the other people were all old and white (by old I mean retirement age and by white I mean, well, Caucasian). I was wondering if they’re exactly the group of audience that the show’s targeting. Being young and non-white I felt somewhat out of place. But after sitting in there was one lady next to me who was quite chatty so it was nice that we got to talk. She said she came with her (real) book club. What a nice outing for a book club!

The producer of the show then mentioned things like how we should spontaneously laugh when things are funny and spontaneously clap our hands especially at the beginning, the end of the show and the introduction of the guests.  So we practiced our spontaneous claps a couple of times. She made a note that we should keep going while she’s still clapping. Lovely. Almost like what I imagined happens at TV studio.

They were shooting 2 episodes that day. First was a special edition of show that discusses books around certain topic, which this time was titled Monsters and Bloodsuckers! After the recent popular books such as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Twilight, it was a good time to discuss how the “monsters” like vampires and werewolves came to be, why people read books that scare them. Of course discussion about scary books can’t be had without including Frankenstein and Dracula — Frankenstein being the first original monster in hundreds of years.

At the panel we had Jennifer Byrne, Will Elliott and Tara Moss, Catherine Jinks and Leigh Blackmore. I admit, I especially wanted to see Tara Moss, whose blog I occassionally read. Tara was looking gorgeous with high heels and model body. Too bad I sat at an angle where I could only see the side of her face throughout the entire shooting.

For the second episode we had the ‘usual’ book club, featuring The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa and The Collector by John Fowles. Talking about gorgeous,  the regular panelist Marieke Hardy was looking amazing with her vampirish outfit, blood red hair ornament, and blood red high shoes; also Jason Steger whose smile I’m always fond of — he always looks so endearing! For guests we had Eddie Perfect (Perfect? What a name!) and Sophie Gee.

I particularly found it quite interesting that minutes to seconds before shooting there’s always a team of make-up artists who “touched up” the panel already seated on the stage — brushed the clothes here and there, put a bit more lip gloss, a bit more hair spray, tamed that naughty strands of hair, brushed the oil off faces, rolled leftover lints off the black shirts; while the panel chatted with each other and seemed oblivious to the parade going on them. It looked comical.

It was a fine day. The whole thing probably took around 3 hours with half an hour break in between. I hope to do this again in the future. You know, if I ever have a free midday again.

The episode will be shown on Tuesday the 7th of July 2009 10pm at ABC 2. Or you can view it on First Tuesday Book Club website.

The books for next month (August) are Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides and something else that I can’t remember. I’m interested to read along Middlesex. It’s about time!

I did too!

The series I loved so much were The Famous Five, Malory Towers, and St. Clare’s. Oh and Noddy. Who doesn’t love Noddy?

I didn’t read the rest of her books for some reason. I don’t know why. It could be that they were just not out in Indonesia that time (where I spent my childhood and teenage years). I read all of them in Indonesian, not English (I read English books much much later in life).

For some reason I also didn’t read the original Famous Five by Enid Blyton. According to Wiki, Claude Voilier wrote the series in French after Blyton’s death in 1968 and those were the ones I read.

I never realized how old the books were! She was already dead before I was even born! But since the setting of the books were just so different with my everyday life and where I lived, it didn’t matter when it was written or in what time the characters live. They were in completely different world to me. In that case, the stories were timeless in my young eyes.

Chimamanda said that she used to imagine herself in The Famous Five, solving mysteries and going to dungeons. But the series that made me daydreamed was Malory Towers, staying in this high-class dormitory, having midnight adventures, and playing lacrosse. Really, it felt so cool :P